In absolute terms, there were 168,700 unemployed, 4,200 fewer than in the previous month and 8,800 fewer than in the same month a year earlier.

The number of employed stood at 4,494,500 among 15-74-year-olds, 44,300 more than in the same period a year earlier. The employment rate was 60.5 percent, up 0.7 percentage of a point.

The number of employed included 130,700 Hungarians in fostered work programmes and 110,200 working abroad. The number of those employed on the domestic primary labour market rose by 2.2 percent from a year earlier to 4,253,500, while the number of fostered workers dropped by 28.7 percent.

The number of those working abroad was down 3.7 percent.

Fully, 785,000 more people work at present than in 2010 and 662,000 work in the primary labour market, Zoltán István Marczinko, deputy state secretary for labour at the finance ministry, said in an interview to public television, adding that positive trends in employment were expected in 2019, too, thanks to a robust economic environment and government measures such as the cut in the corporate tax rate to 9 percent.

Whereas the number of employees dropped by a few thousand from a month earlier, this would not affect the trend of employment growth over the longer horizon, he added.

The finance ministry said in a statement that Hungary’s 3.6 percent jobless figure is the third most favourable rate in the European Union after the Netherlands and Malta. More and more people are being employed in high value-added jobs and the gaps between regions are narrowing, the ministry added.